Kate Simon

Kate Simon (December 5, 1912 – February 4, 1990) was a Polish-born American writer.

Life and career She was born Kaila Grobsmith in Warsaw, Poland to Jewish parents, David, a shoe designer, and Lonia (née Babicz), a corsetiere.

Simon became a well-known travel writer. Several of her guides became best sellers. Her autobiography was written in three parts. The first, Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (1982) was one of The New York Times s twelve best books of 1982 and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. This was followed by Wider World: Portraits in an Adolescence (1986) that told of her teen age period and college experiences. The third volume, Etchings in an Hourglass (1990) is about her adulthood. Her work, Fifth Avenue: A Very Social Story (1978), is a social history of Manhattan. A Renaissance Tapestry: The Gonzaga of Mantua (1988) tells the story of the Renaissance through the history of the Gonzaga family.